


You Started It

by ALovelyDeath



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Academy days, Claustrophobia, Elevators, F/M, Rivalry, brief mentions of Mado Kureo, minor creative licensing, they literally just bicker in an elevator for 2400 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-19 01:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4727825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALovelyDeath/pseuds/ALovelyDeath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Akira has a bad morning and ends up having to share an elevator with Takizawa. Bickering ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Started It

**Author's Note:**

> I finished this ages ago and it's been sitting in my folder ever since. I'm really hesitant posting it because it didn't come out like I wanted and it's not up to par with my usual standard, but whatever. I took a bit of creative license with the CCG's academy training and fubbed a few things. Also the tenses may switch a few times? I tried to catch them all but there's only so much one person can do.
> 
> Based on some asshole otp prompt I found on tumblr and can't find again. I saw it and immediately thought of these idiots.

Akira really, really, does not have the energy or patience to deal with him right now. So naturally when she hears him approach while she waits for the elevator she punches the button again, willing it to show up before he did. And then she punches the button again, for good measure.

  
His footsteps and voice steadily grows closer. Once he turns the corner she’s all but doomed to sharing an elevator with him on the way to class. And that’s something she really, really, does not want. Her disastrous morning won’t be improved by having to share an elevator with Takizawa. A boy who loathes her. A boy who is always quick to tear her down in order to build himself up. She hadn’t anticipated a class rival quite as dedicated to their rivalry as he is.

  
Just as Takizawa rounds the corner, still yammering away on his phone, the elevator doors open with a pleasant, ding! and Akira wastes no time in retreating inside.

  
Footsteps quicken their pace and through the still open door Akira spies her classmate breaking into a run towards her, his cell phone jammed between his ear and shoulder while he waves his other one frantically to gain her attention. “Hold the elevator!”

Akira does the natural thing. She presses the button that will close the doors faster.

  
She glances up to watch the moment the doors would close on Takizawa’s face. Petty as it may be, that’s what their relationship is based on, and it will give her a small sense of satisfaction knowing she has started her day off by annoying him. She doesn’t consider herself a spiteful person, but it’s all too easy to get a rise out of the boy and his reactions are all too priceless. And he’s the one who started this whole petty rivalry.

  
“Hold the door Mado!” He screeches trying to put as much authority behind his voice as possible as the elevator doors start to close.

  
She spares him one last glance while reaching out and deliberately pressing the button again. The fact they both know that her pushing the button a second time won’t make the doors close any faster doesn’t stop the mixture of terror and fury from spreading across Takizawa’s face.

  
“Love you mom, bye!” Takizawa shouts into the phone, snapping it shut without waiting for her reply. His voice is loud and shrill enough that she thinks his voice is better suited for a dangerous mission rather than running at full sprint towards the closing elevator doors.

  
The gap between the doors is just beginning to shrink, Akira watching as Takizawa’s face disappears behind the closing doors. She allows herself a small, smug smile.

  
There are inches to spare, when a hand suddenly shoots out between them and with a ding! the doors open again to let the last minute arrival on.

  
Glaring furiously at Akira he manages one sentence; “what the fuck Mado!”

  
She tuts condescendingly at him like a mother reprimanding a child for their language. If he had been going for the all-important business man look this morning it’s been completely shattered by his furious state.

  
Lunging across the small enclosure he stabs at the elevator buttons in a wild frenzy, dragging his palm across the wood paneling, and lighting up every single button. Every. Single. Button. For. Every. Single. Floor.

  
“You started it,” he pants when he catches her horrified face.

  
“You’re so childish,” she snorts, unable to hide the agitation from her face. Their class for the morning is near the very top floor. They’re starting with a lecture before moving on to physical training. They will still be early, but she doesn’t look forward to this hellish ride where the elevator stops at every floor.

  
Her early arrivals mostly have to do with her father who would drop her off at the academy on his way to work every morning. It’s practical given the academy’s proximity to the CCG branch he works at. That and his reluctance to let her take the subway every morning to something he passes by every day on his way to work. She would’ve been fine taking the subway, but her father is rather overprotective at times and she does her best to put his worries at ease. So she lets him drop her off on his way to work even if it means arriving incredibly early. Takizawa, she suspects, comes early to look like a good student and annoy her more. There’s really no reason for him to be so early other than to mimic her in an attempt to improve his grades more.

  
“You’re the one who saw me and didn’t keep the elevator open.”

  
“There is a perfectly good elevator right next to this one!”

  
The elevator comes to a shuddering stop at the first floor and determined to get away from this madness Akira starts towards the door when Takizawa casually leans forward, arm blocking her exit and presses the button depicting two lines merging together.

  
Still leaning forward, propping himself up on the edge of the paneling, he looks up and gives her a malicious smile. His face is unexpectedly close, they’re inches away and nearly eye level, and Akira can feel her heart stuttering in her chest, and she has to take a step back before she does something stupid like hit him over the head with her briefcase or kiss him. She’s never noticed the flecks of honey in his eyes until this moment.

  
His smile falters once he realizes their proximity and he coughs to dispel the awkward atmosphere that’s settled around them. The doors close again.

  
“What is your problem? Why didn’t you let me off! I don’t want to be stuck on an elevator with you!”

  
Takizawa crosses his arms and leans against the wall, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. He tuts mockingly. “Ooooooooh. I already told you, you started it.”

  
“You are insufferable.”

  
“Right back at you.”

  
She wants to scream.

  
They’re about five floors up when they hit a snag. They’re both standing on opposite corners of the small booth, staring at the ground and refusing to look at each other. It’s silent other than for their annoyed sighs and the whir of machinery. After the first floor there was an unspoken rule between them that whoever got off the elevator first lost. Neither of them have to stop the other from leaving, both patiently wait for the doors to close and wave away anyone who wants to get on. It’s a battle of attrition. Just as the doors close on the fifth floor the lights flicker and the elevator shudders again, but it feels different from the other stop and start shudders every elevator gives.

  
She shoots him a glare that could kill as the lights flicker again. “I swear to god Takizawa if you broke the elevator…”

  
“How can I be responsible if the elevator breaks down?” He demands.

  
“You pressed the damn buttons you moron!”

  
“Well if you’re so scared just get off at the next floor.” He flashes her a toothy grin.

  
“The elevator probably can’t handle your stupidity,” she mutters to herself.

  
Unfortunately in the small space and surprisingly good acoustics Takizawa is able to hear and retorts back with “More like the elevator can’t handle your condescending attitude.”  
“Shut up.” She wants to drown him out with music, but that feels like giving in, and that’s something she refuses to do. The entire point of this unspoken challenge is to see who can tolerate the other longer.

  
Akira doesn’t want to admit it, but by the eleventh floor she is starting to panic. The elevator doors seem to open with more agonizing slowness every floor. And she’s sure the elevator is groaning more than it should. The thought of being stuck, actually being stuck, for an unseen amount of time, terrifies her more than she will ever admit. She’s always been slightly claustrophobic, and elevators are usually not a problem for her, but that doesn’t mean she wants to be stuck in one between floors.

  
Takizawa’s sigh snaps her out of her building panic. She comes back to reality to find him sitting on the floor with one leg splayed out in front of him. While she was trying to keep her panic down they had hit the eighteenth floor.

  
“Your pants will get dirty that way.”

  
“Dun’ care” he mumbles leaning his head back against the wall.

  
When Akira considers the fact that they still have quite a ways to go she decides to take his example. Only after they pass by another five floors, just to make it look like she’s not taking his recommendation or anything. That’s the last thing she needs from him.

  
She eases herself down, smooths out the front of her pencil skirt before setting her briefcase across her lap.

  
The briefcases had been given to them within the first week of class, loaded with a five pound weight, with enough room for their journals and pencils. The purpose of the weights was for the students to get a feel for their quinque cases. They were fashioned similarly, and all the students had been ordered to carry them to and from class until they graduated. Quinques aren’t light, and on investigations you could have to carry them for hours, so growing accustomed to the weight has always been a priority.

  
Akira had graduated from high school with good grades. She hadn’t been the top student, but she had done very well. Her grades more than surpassed the minimum requirements to join the academy. Her grades had come easily enough for her, some courses had been harder than others had been, but she persevered. What she didn’t expect is that the academy would be easier. It comes naturally for her. She’s a natural investigator. Her professors told her so. And she suspects that’s one of the reasons Takizawa hates her.

  
While he excels through hard work she excels because she’s meant to do this. She can feel it in every bone in her body that this is her calling. She’s never thought of any other career. Never entertained the thought of becoming a nurse or a teacher, even before her mother died.

  
She’s always polite to him when they have to work together, it would be aggravating to get marks off for not being able to work in a team. They bicker as a team, that’s unavoidable, but they’re always careful about toeing the line.

  
Takizawa’s praised by their professors, but no one ever calls him a natural, or exerts the same praise on him as they do with her. Natural ability can’t be copied, and he hates that.

  
Because all the hard work in the world can’t beat natural ability. And it drives him crazy. Because no matter how hard he tries she’s always one step ahead. If he gets a 98 on a test she gets a 99.They never see each other head on, constantly seeing each other from the side.

  
The result is something of a jealously between her and Takizawa, with him constantly trying to outdo her and failing by the slimmest margin. It drives him to start petty arguments between the two of them, and for him to pick apart her deductions and work in class. He constantly challenges her opinions on case studies and speculations when she’s called upon. While he values hard facts and evidence, Akira takes her intuition, which has always been strong thanks to her father, into account alongside the facts and evidence presented to her. The green monster of envy hasn’t been kind to him, and when he chooses to make a snide comment she calmly snipes him back with something just as rude. They have been caught in more than one heated argument in class.

  
Because of this, despite being the same age she feels that they’re on vastly different levels when it comes to maturity.

  
“Was it really necessary to press all the buttons?”

  
“Was it really necessary to close the door on me?” He shoots back, mimicking her condescending tone with startling accuracy.

  
“There was another elevator.”

  
“You saw me coming, heard me ask you to keep it open, and you still pressed the button.”

  
She fixes her hard stare on him, expression otherwise in her typical neutral mask, “I didn’t feel like dealing with you this morning.”

  
Takizawa splutters indignantly for a few seconds, struggling to come to terms with her blunt response and find a comeback. All he manages is “rude” before lapsing back into silence and crossing his arms.

  
Of course the silence can never last long and after a minute he says “if the elevator breaks down it’s your bad karma.”

  
Akira barely stifles an eye roll. However the notion of being stuck in an elevator has her stomach doing backflips again and she hopes with all her might that it doesn’t happen. She’s not sure how she would be able to handle it. It’s not even the idea of being stuck with Takizawa that has her stomach plummeting, but the confinement of being in such a tiny place.

  
“It’s not going to break down.” Taking a deep breath and regaining her composure she calmly says, “And if it does it will hardly be because of my karma.” It’s a good cover, she sounds confident and appears to be her typical composed self, while she struggles to keep her fears in line.

  
“Is that your intuition talking again Mado?” He leers.

  
“No. But it wouldn’t kill you to listen to your intuition every now and again. Then again your intuition is likely terrible so it’s probably better that you don’t.”

  
“What!” He shoots to his feet, hands balled into fists at his side, looking offended and enraged at the same time. “You-you-you-I can’t beli-take that-"

  
The elevator doors open with a ding and glancing upwards at the number displayed on the screen Akira realizes they’ve reached the finish line, they’re at the top floor.

  
Akira calmly gathers her things and stands, exiting the elevator smoothly with her head held high, leaving a flabbergasted Takizawa behind her. Her class is another three floors below but she would rather stretch her legs and walk at this point than ride for another three floors down with him.

  
As she’s opening the doors to the stairwell she has a thought. Maybe in the end he’s right. Maybe what he had said earlier in the elevator was true. Maybe she had started it.

**Author's Note:**

> I purposefully left the whole scenario of the elevator breaking down for the reader to speculate whether it really was having some minor mechanical difficulties or if Akira was just imagining it. Lame and poorly done I know.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
